Yes
An expansive, mantra-like anthem built around a river-and-hearts metaphor for collective human connection. Rather than telling a…
unity and collectivism love as connection nature as metaphor (rivers, stars)
The Staple Singers
This is a communal exhortation song built almost entirely around a repeated collective refrain, using the language of civic…
racial unity collective responsibility social observation
Mos Def
A posse-cut showcase built around G-funk swagger, "Oh No" pairs Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch trading verses over a Nate Dogg hook,…
hustle and self-made success competitive supremacy coastal unity
The Temptations
This is a Motown vocal group's reworking of the classic carol, wrapped in a spoken-word frame borrowed from 'Twas the Night…
communal peace holiday tradition spiritual reverence
Madonna
A cosmic dance track that fuses spiritual searching with astronomical imagery, using the image of light and celestial motion to…
spiritual awakening cosmic scale vs. personal feeling impermanence
Björk
Björk voices the ocean itself as a primordial mother addressing humanity, tracing evolution from sea to land in tender, cosmic…
origin and evolution maternal address deep time versus human time
Frank Sinatra
This is Katharine Lee Bates's 1893 hymn to the American landscape, set to Samuel A. Ward's melody and delivered here as a…
national pride natural landscape as moral symbol idealism and unity
Donny Hathaway
A gospel-tinged secular hymn that treats music-making itself as a moral and spiritual practice, capable of dissolving conflict…
music as spiritual practice communal unity optimism through repetition
Marvin Gaye
This is Marvin Gaye's 1971 landmark, a plea for de-escalation and dialogue set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, urban…
anti-war sentiment generational conflict police brutality
Minnie Riperton
A gentle, visionary lyric built around the image of a speaker perched between waking and sleeping, imagining a world of harmony…
utopian longing innocence and childhood spiritual unity
Traffic
A short, incantatory piece built almost entirely from pastoral and folkloric imagery, this bonus track functions less as a…
freedom and journey unity with nature unanswered questions
Fleet Foxes
A young narrator wrestles with the individualism he was raised on, wondering whether meaning comes from being special or from…
individualism vs. collectivism disillusionment with authority search for purpose
Public Enemy
This is a live-show excerpt built around crowd participation rather than a fully worked-through song, using the…
media saturation and control spiritual doubt and moral collapse authenticity versus empty spectacle
Digable Planets
Digable Planets frame their own arrival on the hip-hop scene as an interstellar landing, spinning a mock-sci-fi mythology in…
Afrofuturism as playful self-mythology hip-hop and jazz lineage group identity and unity
MF DOOM
This is a street elegy built around loss and survival, alternating between grim inventories of urban violence and a repeated vow…
urban violence and mortality chosen family and crew loyalty grief and emotional suppression
De La Soul
De La Soul turns Schoolhouse Rock's arithmetic lesson into a manifesto for the trio itself, using the number three as a stand-in…
group identity and unity originality vs. imitation in hip-hop numerology/mysticism as playful device
Missy Elliott
A brash, party-floor anthem in which Missy Elliott asserts sexual and regional dominance in equal measure, treating braggadocio…
sexual assertiveness regional pride/unity self-mythologizing braggadocio
Beastie Boys
This is the Beastie Boys doing what they do best: rapid-fire boasting, absurdist non sequiturs, and a chant-along hook, all…
comeback/reassertion braggadocio as comedy collective unity vs individual ego
Run-DMC
This is Run-DMC's self-introduction track, a boastful roll call in which each member states his name, role, and superiority in…
self-naming and identity boasting and status group unity vs individual flash
Mott the Hoople
A hymn-like anthem built almost entirely on repetition, this track uses communal imagery and quasi-religious language to plead…
communal solidarity surrender vs. resistance spiritual searching
Modest Mouse
A song that lurches from confessional self-loathing into cosmic speculation, treating personal collapse and the birth of a child…
self-destruction and dishonesty surveillance and paranoia birth and creation